Photographing people, places and food! Eating and traveling on a budget. Life's a picnic, enjoy!

Monday, February 02, 2015

Star Princess Puerto Vallarta Mexico

The last port of our Princess Mexican cruise was Puerto Vallarta. There was so much to do there that we had some tough choices. The first order of business was to watch the local pilots turn this giant ship around and dock it in small quarters. The view of the shore changes as the the ship turns.

Star Princess docks at Puerto Vallarta

We decided to spend a day at a resort in "Old Town." I copied this from Avril's "log" which describes our day famously.

Puerto Vallarta - Thursday

We decided to do something we have always talked about – we took the cab to Old Town and arranged to spend time at a resort hotel called Los Arcos there. For a total of $45 for both of us – we got two chairs, a small table, an umbrella (which they set up), towels and 400 Pesos credit for food/drink. We had use of a beautiful pool area, access to gorgeous bathrooms, food and beverages which are ordered from your lounges and served beach side. Plus, the people watching was fantastic – parasailers launch from the beach;. a couple of guys were cutting up fish off the back of their jet ski. A half dozen gray pelicans loitering nearby, until a small white dog came charging down the beach and the pelicans stumbled over each other trying to launch themselves into the air. At the end of the day, we closed our account. We each had two large margaritas and I had a hot dog (delicious, served with fries, a slice of bacon, chopped tomato, onion on a toasted bun with just a teeny bit of mayo) – we spent 202 pesos of our 400 allotment – you don’t get the $$ back, you just have to pay any overage. A great day.

Los Arcos Puerto Vallarta Mexico

While on the beach, vendors come by and try to sell you an array of goodies. I bought a knock off pair of sunglasses that looked remarkably like very expensive Oakley glasses. My son later called them Foakley's, fake Oakley's. Another vendor specialty is fish and shrimp on a stick served with lime wedges. Avril was intrepid enough to try some. I found out later that these barbecue fish on a stick are called "pescado embarazado" translation "pregnant fish!" I found a Puerto Vallarta promotional video on YouTube that featured the very vendor who sold to us.

Pescado Embarzado Puerto Vallarta

Exhausted we cabbed it back to the ship. The vacation was not over, we had three days at sea before returning to San Francisco.

Two days later, after a morning of activities, we decided on pizza for lunch. Here is another story from Avril's log describing my observation of a fellow passenger.

Saturday - Do you remember My Big Fat Greek Wedding – where Toula is explaining to her aunt that her fiancé is a vegetarian? Her aunt replies, “What, he don’t eat no MEAT?! It’s OK, I make him lamb …”

There is a little pizzeria at the back of the ship – they make reasonably good pizza – everyday, you have a choice of Margherite, Pepperoni, Cheese or the specialty of the day. Dad was in line to get the today’s special, which was had Buffalo mozzarella, ham, artichokes, mushrooms. In front of him a man said in an indiscernible accent, “I want the vegetarian pizza.”

Pizza technician: “I don’t have a vegetarian special today, but I have cheese.”

Man: “I want the vegetarian pizza.”

Pizza technician: “I don’t have a vegetarian special today, but I have cheese.”

Man: “Will it be out soon?”

Pizza technician: “I don’t have a vegetarian special today, but I have cheese.”

In the meantime, the special of the day pizza came out of the oven and the man said, “I want that vegetarian pizza.”

3 comments:

Chilebrown- Truth be told she has always been a big part of the blog. Editing and grammar specialist. If I could just be the photographer I would be thrilled. I have been drawn away from writing by Instagram and Twitter. Instant photographic gratification!When she retires the blog will morph more into a joint effort.